Environment

PURONGO SUB-COUNTY, NWOYA DISTRICT: What started as a company official taking advantage of a naive resident and duping him to accept his land to be used as a waste dumping site in exchange for a small fee, has developed into a complex social issue, leaving the victim isolated and scared for his life. Read More

Yoweri stands in what is left of the ‘killer’ pit, pointing at the stagnant water that he claims killed his livestock ten years ago. The pit has filled up over the years but traces of a greenish liquid can still be seen(Photo: Emil H.)

RWEBISENGO SUB-COUNTY, NTOROKO DISTRICT: This area is part of Exploration Area (EA) 3A in the Semliki Basin, which was first licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd. in 1997, and later re-licensed to the same company in 2002. Read More

An elephant takes a stroll in Murchison Falls National Park. According to NEMA, the Albertine Graben hosts 14 percent of all African reptiles, 19 percent of all African amphibians and 52 percent of all African birds. It also hosts 35 percent of all African butterflies, 39 percent of all African mammals and 70 percent of all Ugandan Protected Areas.

Government should borrow to build capacity and real ‘local content’ in environmental management.Read More

An illustration of the fracking process (Source: www.publicserviceeurope.com)

Saudi Arabia is planning to start exploiting its massive shale gas reserves for power generation in a bid to save more of its crude oil for export, as the shale revolution spreads outside North America.

According to Civil Society Organisations in Ghana, twenty dead whales have been washed ashore in the coastal Western Region since oil production started three years ago. (Photo provided by Friends of the Nation)

The Ghana government and environmentalists are trading accusations after more decomposing carcasses of whales were washed ashore last month, reigniting debate on the government’s capacity to balance oil production and environment conservation. Read More

Water gushing out of a borehole at Napuu area during the flushing process (Photo: UNESCO)

The Kenya government announced last week that huge underground water sources had been discovered in the arid Turkana region north of Kenya, big enough to meet the country’s fresh water needs for at least 70 years. Read More

Although everyone now recognises the harm that flaring causes, it appears to be increasing in the USA, where the oil and gas industry has been energised by new “fracking” technologies which have opened up “unconventional” oil and gas fields. This satellite picture shows North Dakota at night, illuminated by gas flares.

Gas “flaring” has for decades been recognised as both wasteful and environmentally hazardous, but it continues on a significant scale around the world today despite various initiatives, codes of conduct, laws and agreements to halt it. Read More

Despite increasing domestic shale oil and gas production , fracking is hugely unpopular amongst environmentalists and the practice has sparked off large protests in the US and Europe.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) dominance of the global oil market is shrinking due to rising supply of shale oil mainly from the United States, according to the cartel’s monthly report for August, 2013. Read More

A bizarre incident in which a local contractor dumped two truckloads of human waste in a village in Buliisa District has exposed the vulnerability of communities in oil-producing areas, but also demonstrated the potential downside of employing local companies in Uganda’s nascent oil and gas industry. Read More

A gas flare. Government policy can decide whether natural gas will be a nuisance and health hazard, or a useful resource .

Close to 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas is thought to lie trapped in a reservoir under Uganda’s Albertine Graben in addition to the 3.5 billion barrels of oil that have so far been discovered.

This sounds like a lot but it is chicken feed compared to the huge gas fields that have been discovered off the coast of South East Africa. Tanzania has found 40 trillion cubic feet. Mozambique has 100 trillion—1,000 times as much as Uganda. Read More